Dr. Carl Melchior, the Jewish banker, partner in the Hamburg banking house of Max Warburg and Company, who has acted as Germany’s representative on the Reparations Commission, on the Financial Commission of the League of Nations, on the Basle Bank of International Payments, and other international bodies, was vigorously defended to-day in the Reichstag by the Prime Minister, Dr. Bruening, against an attack made on him by a Hitlerist, Deputy Rosenberg.
Dr. Melchior represented Germany masterfully at the various international conferences, in which he acted as our representative, Dr. Bruening said, and Germany owes a debt of appreciation to this brave and capable man who has a record of great services to our country.
(The Hitlerist chief organ, “Voelkischer Beobachter”, launched a vicious attack on Dr. Melchior while he was acting in December as the German representative on the Special Advisory Committee meeting in Basle, where he defended Germany’s case that she is unable, owing to the economic situation, to continue to meet her reparations obligations. The German people seems incapable of appointing a tribute negotiator, it said, without selecting an international Jewish banker, whose business interests prevent him representing the interests of the German people.
(When the Advisory Committee of Financial Experts presented its report, finding unanimously that Germany is unable to pay reparations, Dr. Bruening sent a message to the German delegation, giving first place to Dr. Melchior as the head of the delegation, and paying high tribute to him for the clarity and conviction with which he had presented Germany’s case, so that it had been unanimously adopted by the international experts, and expressed to him the gratitude of the German Government and nation).
The Prime Minister also followed up to-day the statement made by General Groener, the Minister of Defence and the Interior, explaining the removal of the ban which had existed against Hitlerists joining the Reichswehr.
Nazis, he said, are allowed to join the Reichswehr only on condition that members of the Nazi Party respect the oath taken by Hitler, to respect and observe the principle of legality, and to do nothing that is outside the law. If members of the Nazi Party continue their wild policy of incitement and agitation, no Nazis will come into the Reichswehr, he declared.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
